Vitex, Novaled to work on OLEDs

Dresden, Germany-based Novaled announced an agreement today to cooperate with San Jose, Calif.'s Vitex on thin film encapsulation for organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs.

The companies plan to combine Vitex's thin film technology with Novaled's doping technology and materials targeting very thin and high efficiency long lifetime OLED products. Novaled's backers include Crédit Agricole Private Equity, TechnoStart, and TechFund. Investors in Vitex include the Battelle Memorial Institute, Mitsubishi, and Tokki.

The energy efficient OLED display and lighting technology is being used in some next generation displays, including televisions and cellphones.

"Our strategy is to provide complete OLED solutions around our Novaled PIN OLED technology," said Gildas Sorin, CEO of Novaled CEO. "Novaled customers will benefit from the Vitex technology for their advanced design."

Novaled said the majority of OLEDs are currently processed on glass substrate and encapsulated with glass for protection against air and moisture, with the glass representing more than 90 percent of the device's thickness. The company said Vitex has developed a thin film encapsulation technology that targets ultra thin OLED devices.

In March, Niskayuna, N.Y.-based GE Global Research announced a milestone in OLED production, demonstrating the world's first roll-to-roll manufactured OLEDs (see GE shows how to roll out OLEDs).

The research division of Fairfield, Conn.'s General Electric (NYSE: GE) said the newspaper printing-like process is key to making the next-generation technology low-cost and commercially viable. GE is aiming to introduce OLED lighting products to market by the year 2010.

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